Re part 6 - Recollection
by BlackFrostWarrior
Summary: Robin finds himself alone defending Gotham. Where are the others?. And who is it that keeps chasing him?. No slash or pairing, probably AU.
1. Prologue

_For Buddy, who the author was blessed to have shared their home with for ten years, and whose like they shall probably never see again._

* * *

_Meekus Labs, Gotham_

_December 3__rd__, 07:25AM_

Meekus Labs was a place of utter filth in a city which was mostly filth to begin with. It sat on the edge of town, a dilapidated building on a street that was badly in need of repair, sandwiched between what appeared to be an abandoned shack and a day spa which had been closed down for twenty years yet still stood as some vague reminder that this was once a good place to do business.

It was a place for mad people, who weren't interested in being watched. Indeed, they were very intent on the opposite. Most people took a different street to avoid the place entirely.

Kids tended to think it was haunted, but the fact was that there was a man there, which was why there were lights. And the odd noises the place was so famous for had their origin in the natural world as well. But Dr. Meekus and his project were anything but natural.

Superficially it was, as there was no magic involved. But beneath that veneer was something diabolical and twisted and... well... mad.

If people didn't avoid the street as though it had the plague, they might have wondered why a limousine was parked in front of the lab. They might also have wondered what could possibly bring Lex Luthor of Metropolis all the way down to the grimiest part of Gotham city. They might have, but they didn't, and for one very good reason: there was nobody on the street to wonder.

Luthor eyed the street with open disdain, he was a neat freak if ever there was one, and preferred to have other people do his dirty work, both literally and figuratively. But Dr. Meekus was a special case. It was he who had developed the serum Luthor had been experimenting with. It was he who made changes to it every time a flaw became known.

For some time now, Luthor had been expecting some kind of update as to when the latest version of the formula would be delivered.

He despised Dr. Meekus, if only because the man was as filthy as his surroundings. Dr. Meekus also seemed to enjoy the sound of deadlines going by, and ignoring Luthor's requests for status updates. Then of course there was the man's utter lunacy.

But Luthor couldn't cut Dr. Meekus out of the project, mainly because his own scientists were either too stupid or too sane to understand the formula in the first place, much less replicate it.

Stepping inside the shabby structure, Luthor was hit by a plethora of awful smells and a wave of muggy air. Steeling himself, he stepped into the darkened building.

He was greeted by a gale of cackling laughter, which startled him until he realized that the sound was coming from a white parrot who was perched on a high bookshelf. The bookshelf contained no books, but instead had a collection of vials of liquid and boxes of equipment which Luthor couldn't even begin to imagine the function of.

"Edith," he hissed, recognizing the parrot.

The bird threw its head back, touching the brilliantly yellow crest on its head to the snow white feathers of its wings. From this position, it proceeded to cackle even louder than before, stopping now and then to imitate the gasping sounds a person filled with that much hysteria would have to make. Wobbling side to side, the parrot swung its head up and down so hard it seemed like it should get whiplash. Luthor wished the foul creature would break its fool neck.

Moving past the bookless bookshelf, Luthor came to an arrangement of cages, most of which were open. Their owners were mostly perched on top of the cages, gazing out of bright black eyes at the newcomer, tilting their heads to listen to the mad guffawing of Edith. These too were parrots, twenty or thirty of them in all, of varying sizes, shapes and colors.

They croaked and made cawing sounds to one another, crackling their powerful beaks in a thoughtful manner. The detestable Edith spread her wings and flapped noisily to a new perch ahead of Luthor so she could laugh at him some more.

Her actions caused a flurry of activity on the cages. The parrots squawked loudly, ducking as if they thought she might strike them as she swept past, then standing up very straight and whooping as though cheering her on.

Luthor hated parrots. They were untrainable and left messes wherever they went. Between their droppings and their habit of chewing anything they could get their beak around, parrots made short work of all one's worldly possessions. As if to prove what Luthor was thinking, Edith swung around in a circle, striking her tail against a glass bottle which wobbled, then toppled and plummeted to the linoleum floor, hitting it with a crash and shattering into an irreparable number of pieces.

In response, Edith began to chortle and hop up and down.

"Vile thing," Luthor couldn't help but say.

There was no charm one could use to stifle a parrot, and no threat to which they would answer. They were eternally noisy and destructive and there was nothing to do about either annoyance save for not having one in the first place.

Sidestepping the glass, Luthor walked on into the next room through an open doorway. Here were more exotic birds including, in one corner, a male ostrich of all things.

It was in the back of this room that Luthor found Dr. Meekus.

"Birds. Birds. It's all the birds. About the birds. For the birds," Dr. Meekus was muttering to himself.

He was hunched over some experiment, wide eyes behind giant goggles and one pudgy finger stuck thoughtfully between his teeth. He squealed in delight suddenly and flapped his arms.

"The birds!. The birds!," he squeaked in elation.

He undoubtedly knew about Luthor's presence, if only because Edith had followed him into the room and was now whistling _Dixie_ for no readily apparent reason.

"Dr. Meekus, you have been ignoring the people I've sent to visit you," Luthor began as pleasantly as he could manage given the circumstances.

"Oh bah!," Dr. Meekus waved a hand in Luthor's face, then scurried off to fetch something, returning a few seconds later and pouring the blue contents of one test tube into the green contents of another.

Laughing as madly as his parrot, he quickly set the tubes down so he could clap his hands.

"Dr. Meekus," Luthor attempted to gain the man's attention.

"Oh please, all that matters are the birds," Dr. Meekus scampered over to the ostrich, who bent its head so he could pet it, looking as tame as any horse.

"If you can't deliver the results I require, then I shall have to cut your funding," Luthor threatened "then where would your precious pigeons be?,"

"Not pigeons," Dr. Meekus ran over to a cage, flung it open with zeal, reached in and pulled out a bird, holding it carefully in both hands "Doves!," he thrust the beast into Luthor's face.

It cooed politely before disappearing back into the cage from which it had come.

"I don't care," Luthor said, brushing himself off in case the molting bird's feathers had gotten on him "you still have certain responsibilities, duties I expect you to perform,"

"You don't understand," Dr. Meekus looked over his glasses at Luthor, squinting his eyes in the poor lighting "all that matters are the birds,"

"You said that already,"

"You're not a bird," Dr. Meekus said "you don't matter,"

Luthor knew at these words that he had lost all control of Dr. Meekus. The man had been breathing the fumes of his experiments too long. It was time to cut his losses and leave this freak show behind.

"Did you know there are birds in Gotham?," Dr. Meekus asked as Luthor attempted to retreat in a swift but dignified manner.

Edith flew down to the little man's shoulder, chortling to herself as if she thought what had been said was a joke and she found it extremely funny.

"Wild birds, soaring above the rooftops," Dr. Meekus went on, ignoring his pet.

By now, Luthor had backed his way into the parrot room.

"One of a kind creatures. The world will destroy them, you know," Dr. Meekus scratched under Edith's chin, assuming parrots had such a thing "the world is full of people like you. Who hate free things, things of the wild. I have to protect them from people like you,"

Edith howled with laughter at this, then eyed Luthor suspiciously as if suspecting he didn't get the joke at all. She managed a look of pity, then cackled some more.

"You see, I need to clear the way for the birds. They're all that matter,"

"I will cut your funding and burn this place to the ground. With you and your birds inside if I have to," Luthor tried to break into the man's monologue.

"The world, Mr. Luthor. The world will burn. Ashes, ashes, it'll all fall down. All that will be left will be the glorious birds. But first I have to catch them. Oh they won't like captivity, but it won't be for very long. Then I can let them go, and they can live free forever,"

"That's very nice. Goodbye, Dr. Meekus,"

Luthor opened the door and exited the building hurriedly, startled by how ruffled he was. It was the second time in recent memory he'd stared into the eyes of someone else and seen something more dangerous than himself there.

As the limo pulled away, he swore he could hear Edith cackling all the way down the street.

"What do you think, Edith?," Dr. Meekus asked "Do you think we should begin with hawks or robins?. Or maybe we'll just wing it?,"

Edith cackled and Dr. Meekus scratched her head thoughtfully, staring up into the sky, grinning like the mad man he was. The world had no idea what it was in for. No idea at all.

* * *

**A/N: As with previous stories, Recollection is meant to be capable of standing up on its own, but the reader will likely enjoy it more if they read parts 1-5 beforehand. Just sayin'.**


	2. Chapter 1 - Games

_Watchtower_

_09:03 AM_

"That game is so old it's actually physically painful to watch you guys play it," Kid Flash was sitting upside down in a chair, gazing at the screen where two computer generated cars were duking it out, doing more smashing into each other and inanimate objects than actual racing.

"Dude, it just came out like... I dunno, six months ago," Beast Boy said.

"And it's cool," Blue Beetle added for good measure.

"You guys do realize you're talking to a time traveler, right?," Robin, perched on the back of the couch Beast Boy and Blue Beetle were sitting in front of, commented.

The look the two exchanged said that no such thing had occurred to them.

"Taking that into consideration, it should be so old you don't even know about it," Robin added, looking quizzically at Kid Flash.

"It was really popular, okay?," Kid Flash said defensively "besides, what do you care?. It's not like you're going to play,"

"Believe it or not, that has never stopped anybody from offering their opinion,"

"Come on, doesn't anyone want to do something that's... you know... interesting?," Kid Flash asked.

"Watching BB kick Blue's butt doesn't interest you?," Robin asked.

"Hey!. I'm right here!. I can hear you," Blue Beetle protested.

"And I can see that you're a full lap behind," Robin told him.

"What about sparring?. I bet I can beat you this time," Kid Flash zipped over to sit beside Robin and nudged him in the ribs.

"I don't doubt it," Robin replied "Gotham was lively last night, and Batman's away on a mission with Wonder Woman and Green Lantern. I'm beat,"

"What about Batgirl and Nightwing?," Kid Flash asked.

"Batgirl's on a team mission in Bialya. Haven't seen Nightwing since day before yesterday. He was probably catching his share of criminals too," Robin replied "After all, Batman leaves for a couple of days and all of Gotham's maniacs come crawling out of the woodwork,"

"So that's a pass on sparring," Kid Flash was disappointed.

"If I can avoid it," Robin replied "but who knows?. Black Canary may have combat practice planned. Assuming nothing comes up,"

Kid Flash made a noise of exasperation. He lived life in the fast lane, and the very idea of doing nothing for even half an hour or so was beyond his comprehension. Robin, on the other hand, was happy enough to rest for a little while. At least during the day Gotham was a reasonably quiet place. Usually.

"Alright, fine," Robin said, giving in to his friend "I will spar with you if you'll play whoever wins this round of... whatever the game is called,"

"Robin!," Kid Flash looked horrified by the notion.

"Hey, you get to do what you want all the time. Maybe you should try doing something else. You might even wind up liking it,"

"Well now I'm glad I'm losing," Blue said "You don't stand a chance against future boy, BB,"

"I do too!," Beast Boy retorted "you're just jealous because you won't have anything to do after I beat you except watch me win,"

* * *

Robin hadn't been kidding about being tired. Kid Flash ran circles around him three times in a row, Robin winning the fourth match by sheer luck and carelessness on the part of Kid Flash, only to lose the fifth to Kid Flash's speed.

Blue Beetle and Beast Boy finished their "match" in time to watch Robin's spectacular failure to take down Kid Flash, getting knocked flat on his back in the first sixty seconds.

After Robin admitted defeat, Kid Flash helped him up and they returned to the room with the video game system. Kid Flash held the controls awkwardly, staring blankly at the buttons.

"This ought to be good," Blue mistakenly believed that being from the future would give Kid Flash an advantage in the game.

Robin knew that the opposite was true. Kid Flash not only had never played the game, he'd never once used a game system that even remotely resembled the one he was looking at now.

"That's the start button," Robin supplied after Kid Flash continued to look baffled.

"I knew that," Kid Flash said "I don't need help,"

"Sure," Robin replied neutrally.

Beast Boy won the first race by virtue of Kid Flash not even understanding how to get his car moving in the first place. Robin opened his mouth to help, but then decided against it. Before the second race, Kid Flash turned to look at him, but then pride prevented him from asking how to work the controls.

"This is just sad," Blue told Robin "Kid doesn't stand a chance,"

"I thought you said Beast Boy didn't stand a chance," Robin commented.

"That was before I learned Kid Flash couldn't use the controller,"

"Just be glad you didn't place a bet," Robin told him.

"Don't tell me, I should learn not to make assumptions," Blue guessed.

"I wasn't going to say anything,"

"But you had that look,"

"What look?,"

"The look all you guys get when you know something," Blue Beetle said.

"I didn't know we had a look," Robin said "and who's we anyway?,"

"All you bats. And the Justice League, and senior team members too for that matter," Blue Beetle replied.

"Well I'm only one of those things," Robin told him "And I'm more bird than bat anyway,"

"Sure, says the guy who gave me the 'you're an idiot' look a second ago,"

"I wasn't giving you a look," Robin insisted "it's just my face. No look, just a face,"

"What's say I kick the stuffings out of you and you admit I'm right?,"

"Oh come on, I just finished sparring with Kid Flash!," Robin protested.

"And I just finished going nine races with Beast Boy,"

"That's not even remotely the same thing," Robin reminded him.

"Okay, I give," Kid Flash interrupted them suddenly "how do you work this thing?,"

* * *

_11:30 AM_

Robin did indeed spar with Blue Beetle, and won three out of five matches. After losing terribly to Beast Boy, Kid Flash had insisted on another go, which he had also lost. He then played Blue Beetle, and it was clear that his skill was swiftly improving. His main issue was pressing buttons faster than the controller could process what he wanted.

They then broke for lunch, Kid Flash threatening to take Robin on after. The watchtower was very nearly deserted other than the four of them, the League was pretty busy and so was most of the team. But standing watch could be extremely boring, because it was a lot of waiting around.

Mal Duncan was the only one doing any real work, keeping an eye out for trouble while the rest of them goofed off and hoped nothing too heavy would happen while they were the only ones around.

Robin perched on the kitchen counter with a glass of orange juice, watching as Kid Flash opened the fridge and dumped almost its entire contents onto a slice of bread and then topped it off with another piece and called it a sandwich.

He inhaled the whole thing before Beast Boy and Blue Beetle had retrieved snacks of their own. He then built himself another, which he ate at something less than light speed. Robin, for his part, stuck to orange juice.

"Don't you believe in food?," Kid Flash asked, grabbing a gallon of milk from the fridge.

"Hey, I'm a bird, what do you want?," Robin retorted.

"Birds snack all day, every day," Beast Boy told him "they eat small quantities, but frequently,"

"Who says I don't snack?,"

"I've never seen you snack," Blue volunteered.

Kid Flash and Beast Boy exchanged looks.

"Us neither," Beast Boy said.

"And that's my fault?," Robin asked.

"Seriously, is this some kind of health thing?," Beast Boy pressed.

"Sure, you can call it that," Robin told him, taking a sip of orange juice "or you could just say I'm not all that hungry right now,"

"Why?. Are you sick?," Kid Flash asked quickly.

Robin's track record for illness and injury over the past six months was astounding. He'd been poisoned, shot, stabbed, beaten up and mauled, among other things.

"No, I'm not sick," Robin said, a little more harshly than intended.

It had not escaped his notice that everyone looked at him with expressions of concern, as though they expected him to collapse at any second. It was a little offensive to him. He was good at what he did, and his tendency towards getting hurt lately did nothing to alter that fact. Add to that the general attitude of all people with superpowers towards those without and life with the team was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.

"I'm not!," he repeated when the others kept looking at him.

"Just askin'," Kid Flash said "sheesh, no need to get all bent out of shape about it,"

"You don't have half the people you work with treating you like you're made of glass," Robin retorted.

"Well, considering what's been going on with you lately...," At Robin's glare, Beast Boy trailed off.

An awkward silence filled the room, broken only by the sounds of chewing. Finishing his second sandwich and the milk, Kid Flash broke it.

"Alright, Rob. Your turn. Think you can beat me?,"

"Watch me," Robin said, accepting the challenge and relieved to turn his mind to happier thoughts.

* * *

They were halfway through the game when Kaldur came in.

"Has anyone seen Nightwing?," he asked.

"Nope," Kid Flash answered for all of them.

"Strange. He and I were scheduled for a training mission together," Kaldur said.

"Maybe he got delayed," Robin suggested.

"I have waited half an hour," Kaldur told him.

"That's weird," Robin said, frowning "Nightwing's almost never late for training,"

"Speaking of which," Blue Beetle said, looking around as if suddenly realizing where he was or perhaps what time it was "Shouldn't Black Canary be here by now?. It's her time to be on watch duty,"

"Hey, that's right!," Beast Boy exclaimed.

"Don't get excited," Robin cautioned "they're superheroes. Any number of things could have happened to them, but they can take care of themselves,"

But inwardly he wondered. The reason he hadn't been hungry was because his instincts were acting up. There was something weird about not seeing Nightwing for days. He tried to tell himself it was nothing. But the spiked crime rate in Gotham wasn't his imagination. Gotham was home to four superheroes, two of which were definitely absent. Even so, the load had been heavier than it ought to have been.

Almost as if Robin was the only hero left in Gotham.


	3. Chapter 2 - For the Laughs

_**A/N: Please note that this is not intended to be a guide to the taming, training, capture or care of parrots. The author has cared for and researched parrots fairly extensively, but chose to take creative liberties. So kindly suspend your disbelief if you know about parrots, and go read about them if you don't. Thank you.**_

* * *

_Gotham_

_01:15 PM_

With Kaldur's plans apparently canceled, Robin knocked off early to look for signs of his brother. He didn't let the others know about his concern. It could easily be nothing. How many times had Batman been caught by a villain unexpectedly, only to escape?. How many times had there been reason for him to disappear for days or even weeks at a time?.

Nightwing was little different. If anything, he was less inclined to report his whereabouts. He had good reason, of course. Though his sidekick days were long over, it was obvious that Batman still felt the impulse to try and guide him, to continue his training even though there was little left for him to learn except for that which must be learned through experience.

It didn't take Robin long to swing by Nightwing's usual haunts, but there was no sign of his brother. Not in, around or above Gotham.

Finding a high perch so he could look down on the city, Robin sat down to think. He was missing something, obviously. Either that or he was just worrying over nothing and Nightwing would come strolling into the batcave come nightfall, having done nothing more interesting than put a stop to purse snatching near the docks.

During the day?. That seemed kind of unlikely. Most of the criminal element was nocturnal, and so was Batman and, by default, Nightwing. Robin had a tendency to float around the clock, having to be up during the day in order to go to school, but also feeling the same urge to be out at night that his father and brother and... well... sister, he supposed was as good a term as any... had.

The only reason Nightwing would be busy during the day was if there was some sort of crisis in progress. The news certainly hadn't given any indication of that.

So maybe Nightwing was off doing his own thing, needing a bit of space after all that had happened recently. Possible, but not likely. Nightwing didn't usually just take off these days, he generally let people know that he was leaving for awhile.

Which left Robin back at square one.

With no signs of trouble to go on, it was almost silly to think anything had happened to Nightwing. But at the same time, it was unusual for him to just disappear like that. He wasn't irresponsible. He was the leader of the team, he couldn't just run out whenever he wanted without saying so.

Which meant something was probably wrong.

Robin was still scratching his head over that mystery when his attention was grabbed by one of the local villains making fast time down the street. Penguin. Robin watched him for a moment.

It struck him as very peculiar that The Penguin was waddling the streets during the day. After all, there was no chance he'd gotten out for good behavior. Meaning he must have escaped his incarceration somehow or other, which meant he should be keeping to the shadows.

The Penguin was practically running down the sidewalk, truth be known, one hand holding his hat and the other clutching his umbrella in a death grip. Robin listened, but heard no sirens.

_You're running, but from who?._

Robin looked back the way Penguin had come, but the only thing he saw down there were a bunch of people scared out of their wits to have come face to face with the infamous Penguin. No sign of a pursuer, even in the shadows.

It could be a trap, Robin reasoned. An attempt to draw him (or some other vigilante) into following the Penguin so someone could get the jump on him. Penguin did have a history of joining teams, however briefly. But the middle of the day was a strange time to try and attract the attention of bats.

Penguin knew as well as anyone that the bats were creatures of darkness. It was sort of like trying to feed sparrows after nightfall. Weird.

He tried linking the two weird things in his day. The presence of Penguin and the absence of Nightwing. He couldn't figure how to make them fit other than the trap theory. But it looked so much like a trap that it seemed unlikely that Nightwing would fall into it.

Penguin was more dastardly than actually dangerous. Still, he was a criminal, and didn't belong running loose as he was now.

Just as Robin decided this, before he could act on it, Penguin passed a dark alleyway. From the shadows of the alley, something flew right at Penguin. It took Robin a second to recognize it as a net. Squawking, the Penguin began to struggle with the net, trying in vain to disentangle himself.

Robin moved closer quickly, curious and concerned at the same time.

Leaping to the nearest rooftop, he crouched down to look at where he'd seen Penguin go down.

The net, and the Penguin, were already being dragged into the back of a van which had been parked on the side of the road. Not by any person, but some kind of mechanical device which was housed in the back of the van. Robin tried to see if there was a driver without exposing himself, but too quickly the Penguin was loaded up and the van started to speed off.

Robin threw a tracker beacon onto it, knowing full well that he couldn't keep up with it.

Then suddenly there was the sound of mad cackling behind him and he whirled, fearing that one of Gotham's other villains had indeed gotten the drop on him after all.

He looked around wildly, his eyes finally settling on a small white thing on the other side of the roof. He wasn't sure what it was at first, it looked almost like a drift of snow. But then it moved, revealing black eyes and a golden crest on a little round head. It was a parrot.

Robin stared at it in some disbelief, wondering if it had perhaps lost its owner.

The parrot cackled again, and Robin flinched involuntarily. The sound was eerily similar to the Joker's laughter. The parrot seemed delighted by this reaction and flapped its wings noisily. Then it began to laugh in a slow, maniacal way, bobbing its head up and down in time with its chuckling.

"You lose your owner?," Robin asked gently, well aware that it was his tone of voice and not his words which the bird would respond to "I bet you're pretty cold up here. Winter in Gotham is no place for a bird like you,"

He crouched down and held out a hand to the bird, who looked at him warily, then chuckled thoughtfully to itself.

"Come on, I'm the least of your worries," Robin said "there's cats and rats as big as cats out there. Not to mention snow storms. You don't want to be caught out in bad weather. Come on,"

He inched his way towards the bird, who kept chuckling and bobbing its head. When he was almost within reach of it, the bird suddenly hissed and lashed out with open beak. It was so fast he didn't have time to pull away. He was immediately glad he was wearing protective gloves.

He had always known they were useful when climbing around on rooftops, but he'd never thought of them protecting his hands from something biting him. Before the bird could let go, he threw his cape over it and wrapped it up like a cat in a towel.

"You wanna play rough?," he continued to use the same comforting tone as before, in spite of the words he now spoke "well we can play rough. But either way, you're coming down off this roof with me and I don't have time to play with you. I've got a Penguin to rescue too,"

_Okay, that sounds wrong._ He thought.

* * *

_Batcave_

_01:45 PM_

"Master Bruce is apt to bring home strays," Alfred shouted over the noise of the screaming cockatoo "but rarely are they so ungrateful,"

"Tell me about it!," Robin yelled back over the deafening shrieks "you'd think I was killing it,"

The stray in question was now locked in a cage, for its own protection as well as Robin's. Upon getting it home, he had attempted to again befriend the frightened creature, but it had escaped the folds of his cape and led a merry chase around the batcave. It was only because, in its state of panic, the bird crashed into a wall and stunned itself that Robin had managed to recapture it.

It had managed to finally get a good bite in just below Robin's left elbow when it regained its senses.

"They tell you a large parrot can break your finger," Robin had commented "but they never said they can remove a chunk of your arm too,"

It was only a slight exaggeration. While the bird had failed to actually remove any portion of its captor's flesh from his body, it had drawn blood and there would later form a substantial bruise around the area.

Successfully caging the parrot at last, Robin sat down to focus on the tracking beacon, only to find that it had apparently gone offline. Meaning it had probably been found and crushed. It sure hadn't taken long to find it and now he had no way of tracking the van.

"This is your fault," he'd told the parrot, who just kept shrieking.

For those of you who have never heard a screaming parrot, the sound is something like being inside a train whistle with twenty people tuning their bagpipes and playing the cymbals. In other words, if it doesn't make you deaf, you'll soon wish you were.

"Gah, I thought darkness was supposed to calm birds down," Robin said, covering his ears to see if it would help. It didn't, the noise seemed to vibrate through his whole body so violently that there was absolutely no way to ignore it.

"Apparently not this one," Alfred commented.

"Maybe if I offer it a snack. What do parrots eat?," he shook his head before Alfred opened his mouth to answer, turning towards the computer.

Internet could be a wonderful device. Clicking the first link, he scanned quickly through the information provided. He decided to look at a few websites, just to be sure. Although at the moment, he was strongly tempted to try and poison the noisy beast.

"Looks like it eats just about anything, but mostly fruit," Robin told Alfred.

"I shall return shortly," Alfred promised, heading for the stairs.

Robin turned back towards the parrot, whose volume had unbelievably risen to new heights. It was hard to believe anything in the world could be so incredibly loud.

_Just be glad you don't have super hearing._ He told himself.

"Look, you!," Robin started, then shook his head.

What was it about animals kept as pets that made you want to address them like you would a human being?. He took a deep breath and regained control of his voice, once again using soothing tones.

"I'm trying to help you, but if you don't shut up I may just strangle you instead,"

The bird, for its part of the conversation, continued to scream at the very top of its amazing lungs.

"Don't you ever stop for air?,"

Alfred returned quickly with a plate of apple slices. Robin took it, then approached the cage and stuck a slice between the bars of the cage. The parrot's screaming changed in tone so that it almost sounded like a woman being violated.

"Oh come on, it's not that disgusting," Robin said "what, you want me to get on my knees and beg?. Fine, be that way,"

Thinking quickly, Robin moved the cage over near where the computer was located, and set the plate of apple slices on the desk. He left one slice of apple stuck through the bars, then sat down and began to search the internet for ways to get rid of the annoying beastie.

Alfred, left to his own devices, abandoned the shrieking cave which was echoing with the sounds of anguish and fury that the bird was making.

Steadfastly, Robin ignored the bird. His head began to ache with the noise, but he did not look at nor speak to the parrot, focusing hard on the monitor screen and trying in vain to mentally shut out the noise. Somehow, a screaming parrot just wasn't the same as a barking dog. There was no way to filter it out or get so used to it that it became background noise.

* * *

_03:39 PM_

When the noise stopped, Robin noticed immediately and was so startled by the abrupt silence that he nearly tipped over his chair. The silence lasted a few seconds, and then the bird began to scream again.

"Oh come on!,"

Robin looked at the bird angrily for a moment, tempted to fling it cage and all off into the abyss. He thought of himself as being someone who liked animals. He really did. But this... this wasn't an animal. This was some sort of living torture device.

Gripping the arms of his chair tightly to resist the impulse to cast the creature into oblivion, Robin steamed and stared at the offensive creature. Villains he could deal with. Those you could always punch when they got annoying. But this... this was maddening.

"Look, do you want to go back out in the snow?. Because I could put you there!,"

Actually he couldn't, he didn't have that kind of cruelty in him. Right about now, he seriously wished that he did.

"I've tried sweet talking, bribing and ignoring you. You're driving me crazy!,"

The bird threw its head back in an unnatural looking way, and kept right on bawling.

"Fine, you know what, just keep at it. I'm sure whoever you expect to save you will eventually hear you and come to claim you. And we'll both be better off,"

He picked a slice of apple off the plate and began to munch on it, returning his focus to the computer. If the bird wouldn't eat it, he might as well. After all, it was a perfectly good apple. Aside from that, he was getting a little hungry. A glass of orange juice didn't go very far.

To his great astonishment, the bird suddenly fell silent. He looked at it out of the corner of his eye, not daring to change anything he was doing lest he set the bird off again.

The beady black eyes were looking at the apple in his hand, following its every movement and closely observing him chewing. The bird make a crackling noise with its beak. Then it began to imitate the sounds of him chewing.

After a long moment where Robin continued to chew the same piece of apple, he held the slice in his hand out to the bird, who leaned forward until its beak touched the cage bars. A little gray tongue extended just barely beyond the end of the bird's beak, reaching out towards the apple.

Robin slowly moved the apple towards the open beak until it was through the cage bars and the bird could reach it. Like a mousetrap, the beak snapped shut on the apple. The bird hissed and recoiled.

But then it crept forward, and slowly, almost delicately, peeled off a small strip of apple.

Its dextrous tongue turned the sliver of apple, working it around the beak as though examining it to make good and sure it was what the bird thought it was. Then the piece disappeared and the bird reached for the slice again, peeling a chunk off in the same delicate manner as before.

"Okay," Robin sighed, thankful he could finally hear his own voice "alright,"

The bird stared at him steadily out of a bright eye, which seemed to have within it more intelligence than any animal ought to have. After a long moment, the bird began to make a soft chortling noise, still pulling off bits of apple and eating them.

Robin couldn't help but grin and laugh along with the parrot, though he tried to stifle it on the off chance that the bird would startle and begin to scream again. Instead, the bird began to laugh in earnest, as if hearing Robin chuckling was the funniest thing it had ever heard in its life.


	4. Chapter 3 - Mist Net

_Batcave_

_05:00 PM_

"I don't suppose you know anything?," Robin asked his guest.

The parrot just chuckled, holding a sunflower in its beak.

"You know, I'm gonna have to figure out what you're supposed to be eating if you're going to stay around," Robin told the bird "it's not like I can just drop you off at the local shelter. Most of those take dogs and cats. Nearest parrot rescue is in the next city over,"

The bird seemed to consider this hilarious and laughed louder.

"Okay, that's getting old. You're a parrot, can't you say 'Polly wanna cracker' or something?,"

As though it understood, the bird began to whistle a crackling rendition of _Dixie_.

"Uh-huh...," Robin nodded, turning back to the computer "that's actually worse,"

He wasn't sure what he was looking for at this point, other than signs of Nightwing or the Penguin's kidnapper. It was a pretty general search. He was itching to actually go and do something, but so far he was a little bit unsure what that something ought to be.

The parrot wasn't helping either. At least it had stopped screaming, which he was endlessly grateful for. But the steady chuckling was downright creepy. Finishing the song, the parrot immediately started over, a little louder this time, throwing a few guffaws in for good measure.

"Look you, I have better things to do than listen to you," Robin said, aware once again that talking to a parrot was an utter waste of time "and you don't understand a word I'm saying do you?," he sighed "right. Well, come on. Didn't your master teach you to be quiet?. Shut up?. Be silent?. Stop making noise?. Umm... shhh!,"

This got a result, but not the one Robin was hoping for.

"SSSHHHH!," the bird yelled, then whispered "baby's sleeping,"

"Yeah, sure. Whatever," Robin shook his head, amused in spite of his irritation.

"Lullaby, lullaby... coo... coo... shhh... baby's sleeping," the parrot went on in a conversational tone.

"The baby's sleeping, yeah, I got that. So why don't you let it sleep and be quiet?,"

"Here ducky!. Here ducky, ducky!," the parrot squawked agreeably.

"Oh now it's a ducky?. Well I'm just gonna ignore you. Here, hold a conference with this piece of fruit," he passed the last chunk of apple through the bars, but the parrot ignored it, evidently quite full.

"Ducky, ducky... duuuckky, quack,"

"I thought you could use some dinner," Alfred said, coming down the stairs.

Robin leaned back in his chair with a heavy sigh.

"I don't even know what I'm looking for,"

"Ducky!. Ducky!," the parrot supplied.

"Penguin, actually," he corrected the bird automatically, then groaned "I think I'm losing my mind,"

He accepted Alfred's offered meal with thanks and ate faster than he meant to, remembering suddenly how hungry he was. The parrot watched throughout, repeatedly mimicking the sounds he made while eating. Its favored noise seemed to be anything that made a crunch sound.

"Will our guest be staying long?," Alfred asked.

"That I don't know," Robin replied between bites "I sure hope not,"

"Shhh...," the parrot scolded, as if it understood "sshhhh,"

"Baby's sleeping, I know," Robin retorted "I think I'm officially beginning to hate parrots,"

* * *

_09:03 PM_

Night had finally fallen over Gotham. There had still been no sign of Nightwing, and Robin for all his training as a detective couldn't find any trace of where he, Penguin or whoever had kidnapped the aforementioned flightless bird had gone.

At least with the fall of night came the ability to do something. Nightwing or no Nightwing, there was still a city full of criminals to put a stop to.

Robin had gone upstairs to take a nap earlier. Upon coming back down to the batcave, he saw that the parrot had put its head on backwards, tucked its beak into the space between its ribs and its wing, closed its eyes, poofed out its feathers and gone to sleep.

Evidently parrots were not nocturnal.

Robin slipped out of the cave quietly, almost making himself laugh as he thought of how absurd it was that all his stealth training was being put to this particular use.

Robin had barely started the evening when he noticed the bat signal in the sky. It made him a bit uneasy. Gordon didn't make social calls, something had to be up for him to be turning on the signal. Thing was, there was no bat around to respond to the signal. Robin wasn't sure how Gordon would react if he showed up alone, but what else could he do?.

Robin took in the rooftop where the bat signal originated from a safe distance. He realized almost at once that something was amiss. Gordon wasn't standing on the roof. In fact, nobody was.

_Add that to the weird list_, Robin thought, beginning to wonder if perhaps he was actually dreaming and none of this was really happening. It had been one strange thing after another all day.

Robin was no fool. And he hadn't forgotten his recent string of rookie mistakes. He was not about to go down and check it out. Everything about it screamed TRAP!. Then again, that had been his first thought upon seeing Penguin trundling down the street at a surprisingly fast clip. Technically, he'd been right. It just hadn't been a trap for _him_.

Climbing to the other side of the roof he was on, Robin jumped off, aiming for the next building over. He was surprised to say the least when his forward motion was yanked to an abrupt halt. He tumbled several feet and found himself ensnared in a net so fine it was virtually invisible.

His first reaction was panic. Tangled in the mesh, he was utterly helpless. Not to mention he was hanging about thirty stories above the ground with no visible means of support. It didn't take more than a few seconds for him to regain his composure.

Twisting in the net, he tried to reach his utility belt and a birdarang so he could cut the the strands that held him. He tried not to think about the resulting free fall that would drop him into. One thing at a time. He was thoroughly tangled in the net, and practically had to perform a contortionist act just to barely touch one of the birdarangs. Gasping with frustration, Robin looked around to see a strange figure standing where he was sure one end of the net had to be attached.

A short, rotund little man, who was clearly working some sort of control because the netting started to drift toward him, Robin still trying in vain to get free.

Robin didn't take the time to appreciate the complexities of hanging a net across fifty feet of open air thirty stories up between two buildings, nor did he particularly care about the mechanical aptitude it probably required to build a device which could properly pull the net from its former position towards another rooftop. All he knew was that he was suspended in the air, being dragged towards who knew what kind of fate at the hands of what appeared to be a tubby Mr. Magoo.

"Come on... just... another... inch...," he growled through his teeth, straining two fingers between the mesh towards the birdarang.

The hanging net was spinning slightly, and Robin had landed virtually on his head and so was working mostly upside down with a great view of the fall to come even should he manage to escape this mist net.

"Yes!," he whooped, at last snatching the birdarang from its housing, slicing through the net as he did so.

It took a few precious seconds to free himself, and he was almost sure he would have reached the rooftop with the little man on it before he got loose, something he didn't fancy at all. He had no idea what else the guy had up his sleeve, but the net itself was ingenious enough to make Robin reluctant to find out.

When he'd cut most of the strands, the last bits of net holding him up suddenly gave and Robin found himself plummeting downward towards the pavement in an alley. It was either sheer luck or planning that he was close enough to the building to catch the railing of its fire escape with his left hand on the way down. The sudden, jolting stop sent shock waves of pain up and down his arm and he quickly took hold of the railing with his right hand and put most of his weight on it.

He climbed up quickly, then shot a line up to the roof. Once there, he wasn't sure whether he was surprised or disappointed that the little man was gone.

He realized it was probably for the best. His left arm hurt from shoulder to wrist, he knew he'd pulled something, possibly even dislocated something. He was in no shape for a fight with a genius now.

He stood there, breathing hard after the exertion, wondering who could have set a trap so elaborate. The bat signal had obviously been a lure, but whoever it was knew enough about Robin to realize that he would turn his back on the signal and retreat. They had to be guessing at the direction he would take, either that or they had set up nets on all sides save the one he'd come from, which seemed unlikely.

His breath clouded in the air, and he looked up at the sky which was rapidly becoming cloudy after having been mostly clear all day.

"Weather man was right for once," Robin told himself.

Robin was tempted to pack it in for the night, but realized that wasn't the right thing to do. The night had just begun and, until a storm started in earnest, the criminal element would be very busy. It was, after all, the holiday season. What better time to mug people and steal their stuff?.

He would just have to be more careful from here on out.

There was no longer any doubt in his mind but that someone was after him, and had probably already caught Nightwing. They were good, and Robin was tempted to call it quits while he was still ahead. But that would just prove what everyone had been thinking lately.

That he needed help and couldn't take care of himself. Well he would prove, at least to himself, that they were wrong. He would not be caught, he would not run and hide, he would do his job just like always, and find a way to stop this fruitcake before somebody got hurt.

* * *

_Meanwhile_

"Let me out!. I demand to be released at once!. Do you hear me!. Let me out!," Penguin yelled as loudly as he could manage, pressing his hands and face against the wall of the container which held him.

The walls looked like glass, but were really much stronger stuff. The only opening was at the top, thirty feet straight up, a tiny circular hole which, even if one was somehow able to climb up glass, could not be reached from the wall. Aside from that, there was a hatch for this hole, which at the moment was closed and locked down.

"Help!. Get me out of here!. Let me out!," Penguin wailed.

Nightwing, sitting with his knees drawn up and elbows resting on them in the middle of the enclosure had suffered Penguin's screaming in silence for hours, in the vain hope that Penguin would eventually either get tired or lose his voice. Now he finally exploded.

"NO!. Nobody can hear you!," he shouted "not a single damn person in this world besides me can hear you!. It's soundproof, you imbecile!,"

"AAHH!. Let me out!," Penguin sank against the wall in defeat, beating against it with a fist.

"Is this why they keep letting you out?. No really, I want to know. Is it because you're so insufferably irritating that they figure 'maybe if we let him go, he'll shut up'?,"

Penguin didn't answer, scowling at his cell mate with a mixture of contempt and utter loathing.

Just then, the hatch door squealed open. Nightwing and Penguin were on their feet in an instant, not so much because they believed they might escape as the possibility had crossed their mind. Also, Nightwing recalled earlier when Penguin had been unceremoniously dropped on his head from above.

A hail of seeds came pouring in, bringing with it a cloud of dust so thick that Nightwing had to close his eyes and try not to breathe. He made the mistake of doing so once, and went into a fit of coughing he was unable to recover from until the seeds had finally stopped raining.

He found himself standing in a pile of seeds around a foot deep. Stepping gingerly out of the pile, he went to one of the far corners where there were at least fewer seeds. This wasn't the first time seeds had come raining in on him, it happened about four or five times a day.

He knew that, in about twenty minutes or so, the floor would shift to a sort of grill-work, and the seeds would tumble into a container below and disappear.

He still hadn't figured out exactly _why_ his captor kept throwing seeds at him. He had picked out some of the more palatable seeds and been eating those, since they were the only provided source of food.

Penguin, as if sensing that this was meant to be dinner, grabbed a handful and stuffed them in his mouth, consuming them shells and all.

Nightwing raised an eyebrow.

"You're disgusting," he said.

Less than a minute later, the hatch opened again and a new captive fell to land on the pile of seeds. Nightwing recognized Black Canary at once and helped her get up and brush some of the seeds off.

She opened her mouth, but he shook his head.

"Not even a canary cry will shatter this thing," Nightwing told her.

He returned to his corner where he was collecting a pile of seeds.

"Have a seat and grab some seeds," Nightwing said, gesturing to the large pile of seeds "they seem to be all we get to eat,"

"What, does he think we're birds or something?," Canary asked.

Nightwing looked up at her, blinking thoughtfully. The idea hadn't really occurred to him until she said it, but about the only thing he, Penguin and Black Canary had in common were names and/or costumes that made references to birds. In addition to that, there was another container just like theirs on the other side of the... room?... warehouse?... whatever... which contained Hawkman and his mate.

Nightwing hadn't been able to communicate with them extensively. He knew sign language, but they didn't and so their only conversations had been elaborate games of charades. They'd given up on it when they figured out that none of the three of them knew more about their situation than the others.

"But we're not birds," Nightwing said "and, I don't know about you, but I can't live on a diet of sunflower seeds and millet for the rest of my life,"


	5. Chapter 4 - Good Evening

_Gotham_

_11:30 PM_

Robin had never really noticed how much he used his left arm until even moving it sent jolts of pain through him. It didn't impede him enough for criminals to know the difference, but he sure did. As the night wore on, it only got worse, stiffening and becoming sore as the injury settled in to stay for awhile.

He did his best to ignore it and, really, it wasn't the worst he'd suffered of late. Still, he didn't want to mess around with the criminals he was fighting. Where he normally might have toyed with them for awhile, tonight he chose to dispatch each one as swiftly and efficiently as humanly possible.

So far, he'd handled four break ins and somewhere over ten attempted muggings. And the night was just getting started.

Pinning his current enemy, a man who'd been trying to steal the purse of a little old lady, Robin was startled to see that, no more than ten yards ahead, she had been accosted by another ruffian. Knocking his current dancing partner out, Robin abandoned him in favor of the new game.

He caught the guy by the collar and slammed him into the wall, then pointed to the mugger who had previously attempted to rob the old lady.

"Are you serious?," Robin asked, not sure whether he was angry with the man for trying to rob the lady or amused at the man's overwhelming stupidity.

He tied up the second would-be mugger and piled them up near the street corner. No sooner had he done this than he heard sounds of a struggle coming from down the street. Arriving swiftly, he was dismayed to find that the old lady was once more under attack.

Knocking the third hooligan out, he did something very unusual: he offered to walk the lady home.

"What a nice young man," she commented, patting his arm "but I only live a few blocks from here, I'll be quite alright,"

"Ma'am, it would make me feel much better knowing you were safe at home," Robin replied "this is no time of night to be out walking by yourself,"

"Well, I suppose not," she said agreeably, then took his arm "and if it will make you feel better-,"

"It definitely would," he said honestly.

He was, quite frankly, getting tired of rescuing this particular lady.

The walk home was interrupted by one more mugger, who was apparently so clueless about the occupation of mugging that he didn't entirely realize that lone targets, or at least ones not accompanied by superheroes, make the best targets. Robin dispatched him swiftly.

"Children are so violent these days," the lady told Robin as they reached her door "in my day they learned to behave by the time they were your age,"

"I'm sure they did. Goodnight, ma'am," Robin said politely.

He stayed to watch her go into her house, and thought about just camping out in front of her door for the night. She sure was popular with the criminals. But he decided that, if she'd lived this long, she could probably survive another night without him standing watch over her.

Shaking his head, Robin headed back the way he'd come, only to find his feet pulled out from under him suddenly. He was yanked up in the air faster than he could blink, and there he bobbed, a rope around both ankles attached to a tree branch holding him off the ground.

"You have got to be kidding," he muttered.

He cut himself loose and looked around for the culprit of this particular prank. He expected to see the guy who reminded him of Mr. Magoo around, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh come on!," he shouted into the dark "surely I can't be that scary!,"

Whoever he was, the guy was definitely fast. After all, he couldn't possibly have anticipated that Robin would be standing in that spot. Unless... realization dawned and Robin went to the place where the last mugger had attacked. He was already gone.

"Nice, Robin. Real clever," he muttered irritably.

* * *

_December 4__th__, 01:00 AM_

_When Batman gets back, I'm putting in for some vacation time,_ Robin thought, _in some nice peaceful city. Like Metropolis._ He grinned at that.

Metropolis was far from peaceful, but virtually all disasters were handled by Superman. Besides that, if you found yourself in another superhero's territory, they were generally less than happy to share the crime. Robin wasn't sure why that was, but he had the same feelings as any other hero. He certainly wouldn't appreciate someone coming into his city and mucking around.

Well, maybe he wouldn't mind it right now. How had Batman ever done this by himself?.

Below, an alarm went off. Five crooks exited a jewelry store, each with a sack slung over their shoulder. Robin wasted no time in leaping down and blocking their path.

"Hey, where's Batman?," Asked one thug.

"Yeah, doesn't he have time for us anymore?. Or is he too busy with his Justice League?," another chimed in.

"Cute," Robin told them "maybe you should try going on road tours instead of stealing jewelry,"

It wasn't quite as easy to take them out as it should have been, especially when one managed to hit Robin in the arm with a two by four. Spikes of pain shot through him, but he ignored that until he had the last of them pinned.

"Here's the question you should be asking yourselves: why didn't you just stay at home?. It's cold out tonight, and it's really not safe for helpless criminals such as yourselves," Robin smirked, then patted one of them on the shoulder "think about it,"

Robin hadn't been kidding about the weather. The clouds were getting thicker and there was little doubt but that a snow storm was well on the way.

_Well, _Robin thought, _I guess I should call it a night before the storm hits._

Criminals could be immensely stupid, but none of them were dumb enough to go out on the streets of Gotham during a blizzard. No sooner had Robin thought this than the first snowflakes came whirling down. He looked up at the clouded sky, and then started heading for home.

* * *

_Batcave_

Robin had virtually forgotten about the parrot, but was instantly reminded of it when the bird set up a dreadful squawking when he flopped into a chair.

"Shush, shhh," He scolded "be quiet,"

The bird, apparently realizing it was just him and not some evil monster of the night, settled down. Robin turned on a light on the desk.

"Ack, gah," he shielded his eyes from it for a second "that was a terrible idea,"

"You're home early," Alfred, having heard the commotion, had come down to see what was up.

"A snowstorm blew in," Robin explained "which was just as well, I'm beat,"

For the first time that night, he made an inspection of his arm. Even though it felt like it hurt absolutely everywhere, he soon determined that it was really just the muscles he'd torn or strained catching himself awkwardly on the fire escape.

"You're wounded?," Alfred asked, suddenly interest.

"Nah, it's not bad," Robin told him, wincing as he tried to figure out exactly what range of motion he had in his arm "just pulled something,"

"Good evening," the low gravelly voice startled both of them, and they looked over at the source of the sound, which turned out to be the parrot, who proceeded to chuckle quietly.

"A little late for greetings, aren't we?," Robin asked, not expecting an answer.

He didn't get one either. Turning from the parrot to Alfred, Robin related the night's curiosities to him, the mist net as well as the noose trap.

"Curious," Alfred said when he'd finished.

"What?,"

"That Nightwing and Penguin should go missing, and some dark figure uses traps commonly used to capture avian creatures on yourself,"

"That is weird," Robin said "wait, what?,"

"Try using the internet you're so fond of," Alfred suggested, raising an eyebrow.

Robin did as he was instructed, and soon had discovered more about trapping wild birds than he ever wanted to know. It was strange to think somebody was coming after him solely because of his name, but that's what it was beginning to look like.

"What do you think, bird brain?," he asked the cockatoo after awhile.

"Good evening," the bird croaked conspiratorially.

"Uh-huh," Robin said, then looked hard at the bird.

Could the bird itself have something to do with this?. After all, birds did appear to be the theme of the night. Looking closely at the parrot through the bars, Robin noticed a band on its right leg for the first time. He blinked in disbelief. How could he have missed that earlier?.

Probably because the bird was screaming and flailing and biting, that's how.

"You wouldn't let me have a look at that, would you?," Robin asked conversationally.

The bird looked down, apparently curious to see what he was so interested in. Evidently it didn't understand his fascination and looked up at him, then back down at its leg.

The bird raised its banded foot, and then proceeded to scratch its nose rapidly with a toe. Once this was completed, it began to sneeze. Robin wasn't sure if it was actually clearing its sinuses or making a comment. It was hard to tell with the parrot.

"You'd totally take my hand off if I reached in there, wouldn't you?," he asked.

The bird stretched its neck, yawning widely, then made a burp noise, fluffed its feathers until it looked twice as big and settled into blinking sleepily.

"I suppose I could just grab you and have a look," Robin said "which would probably send you into another screaming fit, wouldn't it?,"

The bird blinked elaborately several times and nestled its head into its feathers.

"And it would be just my luck if that band didn't mean a thing," Robin went on "on the other hand, it would lead me to your owner and maybe I could finally be rid of you. Of course, if it turned out your owner was completely evil and kidnapping people against their will...,"

He shook his head. It had been too long since he'd slept. He'd figure this out in the morning. He checked the bird's water dish, then pulled off his mask.

It felt bizarre for a moment, being without his mask. He'd been wearing it for more than twenty-four hours and now felt naked without it. Shaking his head, Tim set down the mask and then removed his cape. This provoked a noisy reaction from the bird, who made a terrible coughing sound and began to flap in its cage. Once Tim hung the cape up, the bird settled back down.

"I guess your owner probably doesn't have one of those," he said "probably doesn't wear a mask, either. Is that why you were so upset earlier?. Never seen a cape before?,"

"Shhh...," the bird hissed reproachfully "ducky's baby," then it added in a helpful tone "sleeping evening. Good,"

"That came so close to making sense it was creepy," Robin replied coldly "either that or I'm so short on sleep that I'm losing what's left of my mind," he shook his head "well, goodnight, bird,"

"Good evening," the bird replied brightly.

* * *

_Watchtower_

_07:34 AM_

"So wait, the common denominator of the missing people is their secret identity being bird related?," Superboy was utterly baffled "who even figured this out?,"

"It doesn't matter who," Kid Flash replied evasively "it just... you know... I mean... look at the people we can't find. Not just heroes, but some villains missing from prison,"

"That just... makes no sense," Superboy shook his head.

"And yet, it does seem to be the case," Kaldur told him "as most members of the Justice League are currently occupied with a mission, it falls to us to locate the missing and apprehend whoever has captured them,"

"Assuming they're not just dead," Tigress put in darkly.

"From my experience," Kaldur said "it is easier to capture Nightwing than it is to kill him,"

Tigress inclined her head, forced to acknowledge this. After all, Nightwing had been caught on more than one occasion, but he was still very much alive. Or had been the last time she saw him.

"So, are any of the birds left?," Superboy asked.

"Possibly," Kaldur replied "I have heard no response from Robin, but the news in Gotham had several pieces which would seem to have involved him,"

"So assuming he wasn't captured at some point, he's still running around loose," Superboy said.

"So it would seem," Kaldur agreed.

"Well, we should go find him, before this bird guy does," Kid Flash announced "come on, let's go,"

"At this time of day, Robin is very likely at home," Kaldur said "and probably in no great danger,"

"But-," Kaldur interrupted Kid Flash's next protest.

"He has managed to take care of himself thus far, is it not reasonable to assume that he will continue to do so and is very likely just as aware of the situation as we are, if not more so?,"

"Then why hasn't he called us?," Miss Martian asked.

"Do you call for help every time you are under attack?," Kaldur asked, eyebrows raised.

The discussion was interrupted by a chirp at the computer, announcing a new message.

"It is from Robin," Kaldur said.

Everyone crowded around to read it. Kaldur's query had been about Robin's health.

The message read: _I'm fine. What's up?._

Instead of typing a reply, Kaldur opened a video feed. Robin's image appeared, showing him seated in front of his computer.

"We were afraid you'd gotten snagged," Kid Flash said before Kaldur could speak "there's some lunatic going around catching all the heroes and villains with bird names,"

"_Yeah, I know,"_ Robin told him _"the guy was after me all last night. And lemme tell ya, if I ever see another net again, I think I'll just scream,"_

The end of Robin's sentence was punctuated by a loud shrieking which dwindled down to a fierce cackling. It obviously wasn't Robin, so the team exchanged bewildered glances.

"_Hang on,"_ Robin disappeared from the image, but they could hear his voice plainly _"Shh!. Shush!,"_ more cackling _"Quiet!. Baby's sleeping now. Shush!,"_

Kid Flash began to laugh. He had no idea what was going on, but it sounded funny to him. The cackling finally stopped and Robin's image returned.

"Uh, Robin, what was that about?," Superboy asked.

"_Hmm?. Oh, that was just the parrot,"_ this was followed by a loud announcement, apparently made by the parrot, that the evening was ducky.

Robin glared fiercely and hissed _"I'll cover your cage again. I will!. Don't think I won't,"_

"Parrot?," Kid Flash asked, between fits of giggles "I didn't know you had a parrot,"

"_I don't. Didn't. I found it last night. As soon as I get my hands on that leg band, it's going right back to wherever it came from,"_

"Leg band?," Kid Flash had, understandably, never heard of such a thing.

"People put bands on their pet bird's legs," Beast Boy supplied "it's like a dog collar, so if they get lost, whoever finds them can take them back home or call a number or something,"

"_All well and good," _Robin added _"Except that first you have to get your hands on it,"_

There was an angry hissing, undoubtedly from the bird.

"_Yeah, I hate you too,"_ Robin shot back.

"Uh, dude," Beast Boy said "you're talking to a bird,"

"_You think I don't know that?,"_

"You can't reason with a bird like that. You're just upsetting it," Beast Boy told him.

"_Really?. Would you like to try making friends with it?. Because you're welcome to it,"_

"Ahem," Kaldur cleared his throat in order to bring the conversation back to something relevant "about this person who has been catching bird-themed vigilantes and criminals-,"

"_I've seen him, and boy is he distinctive,"_

"Well, what does he look like?," Superboy asked.

"_Mr. Magoo. A round Mr. Magoo,"_ this response was met with confused looks _"Uh... he's a short round guy with big glasses,"_

"Got any ideas on how to catch him?," Kid Flash wanted to know.

"_Not especially. Though I would say he knows a lot about the way I think. He's eerily good at baiting traps. Maybe it's time I took the bait,"_ Robin said.

"I don't like that idea," Kid Flash was shaking his head.

"_You're probably right. I managed to bug his vehicle, but before I could trace it, he killed the bug. He's wicked fast and knows what he's doing,"_

"Well we obviously have to do something," Superboy growled.

"_Well yeah, but what?. I mean, I can keep evading traps and chasing after him, but that hasn't really been working out for me so far,"_

As if feeling forgotten, the parrot suddenly shouted "good evening!" and then croaked several times.

"_Quiet you, I was getting to that,"_ Robin snapped _"I think the bird may actually be our best shot. I found it right after our mystery man caught Penguin. Besides, it's all about the birds, right?. Well," _he turned the camera so that his image was replaced with that of a white parrot in a cage _"well that looks a lot like a bird to me. It can't be coincidence,"_

"How would the bird help?," Kid Flash asked.

"_Leg band, remember?. If I can get a look at it, then I can find out where it came from. If I'm right, that should lead me to wherever the guy behind all this lives. Granted, he may not be there, but it shouldn't be hard to find out who lives at the address,"_

"So just look at the leg band then," Kid Flash suggested.

"_Great idea. Wanna come try it?. I have some bandages that should slow the bleeding after the bird bites your finger off,"_

"Oh come on," Beast Boy said "it can't be that vicious,"

"_It can and it is,"_ Robin insisted.

"Well, keep trying," Kaldur ordered lamely, not sure what else to do.

"_Thanks for the tip, I'll do that,"_ Robin cut contact.

"Is it just me, or is he a bit moodier than usual?," Kid Flash asked.

"It's not just you," Superboy assured him.


	6. Chapter 5 - The Art of Parrot Handling

_Batcave_

"Alright, you heard the man, that leg band is totally mine," Robin told the parrot "sooner or later, I will have it. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way,"

"Back in five," the parrot snickered "back in five,"

"No, not in five. Right now," Robin retorted.

He knew he would have to open the cage. He also knew that the bird would undoubtedly attempt to fly out. There was entirely too much space in the batcave. Picking up the awkwardly large cage, Robin hauled it upstairs, then thought for awhile about what the best room to be in was. He decided that the best place was one of the bathrooms, probably the smallest one.

The parrot had started to scream, but not as loudly as the day before. It seemed to be protesting out of offense rather than actually feeling threatened.

"Hey, I'd rather you carry yourself," Robin said "do you have any idea how hard it is to climb stairs with you and your giant cage?,"

Admittedly, the cage wasn't entirely the bird's fault, but Robin couldn't very well let it out and try to carry it upstairs. He'd gotten lucky yesterday when the bird had given him the opportunity to throw his cape over it, and again when it stunned itself. He couldn't count on that happening again.

He set the cage down, then left to get an apple. The bird seemed especially fond of them. On returning, he sat quietly for several minutes until the bird appeared to be calm. Then he started with his first plan.

* * *

Plan A

Opening the cage very slowly, Robin held out the piece of fruit. He made sure not to open the cage so much that the bird could get out. Once the parrot seemed distracted by the apple slice, he went for the band with his free hand. He was fast, but the bird was faster. Once again, his gloves saved him from a very painful bite.

He tried this a few more times, only to find that the bird's trust in him decreased to the point that it wouldn't touch the offered apple unless he put it down and closed the cage.

"So much for that idea. On to plan B,"

* * *

Plan B

Robin reached in with a gloved hand and held it near the parrot, who hissed and bit and crawled into the back of the cage. He thought of just grabbing it, but feared injuring the fragile creature and also dreaded the screaming fit which would undoubtedly follow that action. He knew that birds' bones broke fairly easily under pressure, but wasn't sure exactly how easily.

He hoped that if he held still for long enough, the bird would eventually allow him to touch it. As if sensing his plan, the parrot proceeded to be completely uncooperative. It began to shriek as it had the first day, biting if Robin so much as twitched. Thirty minutes did nothing to calm it down.

"You're a real jerk," Robin growled.

* * *

Plan C

Robin turned off the lights in the hopes of being able to sneak up on the bird and remove the band from its leg before it knew what hit it. This proved to be a mistake as the frantic bird managed to flap its way out of the cage and escape his inexperienced grasp.

Robin knew how to catch criminals and break human bones in precisely the way intended, but holding onto a frightened bird without hurting it was not in his skill set.

In the dark, he groped blindly for the light switch. His efforts were hindered by the bird who was flying blind, crashing into the walls and occasionally bouncing off his head. Just as he reached the switch, the bird ran headlong into him and slid down his face, clawing in mad panic. Robin instinctively threw himself backward, crying out as the digging claws cut into his skin.

Blinking in the light, Robin looked around for the bird.

Perching on the curtain rod for the shower, the parrot was hunched low and looking around with wild eyes, hyperventilating and shivering in terror.

"Okay, okay, that was my fault," Robin said as soothingly as he could manage "now I'm the jerk,"

He looked at his face in the mirror. It was a wonder the bird had missed his eyes. A set of scratches bled their way down between his eyes, off the right side of his nose and across his cheek. Another set started at his forehead and went down the left side of his face.

Touching the ragged skin near them, he winced.

"That's worse than a cat scratch," he muttered.

"Master Tim, is everything alright?," Alfred asked from the other side of the door.

"Fine. I just had a small altercation with the bird is all. We're both fine," Robin replied.

He looked up at the bird who was still flattened to the curtain rod.

_At least I hope we are, _he thought, but didn't say this.

He sat down on the bathroom floor and leaned against the closed door, looking up at the parrot, who regained its composure with remarkable swiftness. It was at this point that he realized the bird's eyes were actually a sort of burgundy rather than black. It was hardly surprising that he only noticed now. It was the first time he'd seen the bird in good lighting. In the eyes was a kind of hurt with which Robin was very familiar.

"Okay, so I betrayed your trust," Robin said by way of opening conversation "and I'm sorry. But I really need that leg band. Can't you understand that?,"

_Of course you can't. You're a parrot!._

The bird looked at him for a long moment, then hesitantly began to whistle Dixie. It halted mid-note, tilting its head to get a better look at him. Then it quietly resumed whistling.

"Is that your way of accepting my apology?. Or your way of telling me you're afraid of me?,"

The bird kept whistling, slowly straightening up and beginning to sidle up and down the curtain rod. It got louder as it went, and began to really get into it by bobbing its head and body up and down in time with its favorite tune.

And then Robin had another idea.

* * *

Plan D

Robin stood up slowly, afraid of scaring the bird again. He picked up a piece of apple and placed it on the gauntlet of his right arm. He wasn't sure if the bird could tell how incapable he was of using his left arm, but it seemed pretty likely. After all, whatever else one might think about the intelligence of animals, they were exceptionally aware of weaknesses in themselves and others.

Robin held his arm up and away from him, the apple carefully balanced. The bird stopped whistling and eased to the end of the rod which was farthest away from where Robin stood. There was a good amount of space between them in the bathroom, so Robin hoped the bird wouldn't feel cornered.

Taking a deep, resolute breath, Robin started to whistle.

He wasn't very good at carrying a tune, but it got the bird's attention at once. Tilting its head sharply and lowering it, the bird listened attentively while Robin whistled a very broken and butchered Dixie. Once he was finished, he waited, not sure what to expect.

The parrot raised its head. The light on the wall shone through the crest, making it appear to glow as the bird whistled a much better rendition of Dixie. It went from beginning to end, then stopped, dropping its head lower than the curtain rod, until it was almost even with Robin.

Robin was almost too excited to whistle. He suddenly couldn't remember Dixie, even though he'd just heard it and whistled something else from a band he listened to. He was only a few notes in before he realized his mistake, but the bird was still listening so he finished the tune.

The bird looked baffled, utterly and completely. It whistled a few notes, random and disjointed, but definitely trying to repeat what Robin had just done.

Robin then whistled the first three notes of the song and waited. After the bird tried to mimic this, he repeated the notes. After four or five times, the bird had the first notes.

Abruptly, it spread its great white wings and flew over to Robin's outstretched arm. It chowed down on the apple, then questioningly whistled the notes it had just learned.

Robin was grinning like a madman and was so thrilled he could almost jump around and scream. But he forced himself to hold still and whistle the first notes of the song, then add a few more.

* * *

_11:30 AM_

It had taken most of the morning, but Robin had finally gotten the bird to come to him. He'd also taught it how to whistle a new song. Between the parrot and himself, the apple had totally disappeared. Robin was both elated and exhausted, even though the day had just started.

He'd almost forgotten why he wanted the bird's trust to begin with, so thrilled was he to have finally earned it, if only a little.

The bird had really gotten into the new song, bobbing and weaving as it excitedly whistled along with Robin. Then it had finally gotten tired. To Robin's intense shock, it climbed up the sleeve of his costume and perched on his shoulder, snuggling up to his head to go to sleep.

He knew the bird was probably just cold, and maybe didn't want to sleep alone since it was a flock animal. But it trusted him enough to sleep on his shoulder!.

He decided to take the bird's example. Right there, on the bathroom floor, leaning against the closed door, he too fell asleep.

* * *

_01:15 PM_

Robin was startled into wakefulness by a tickle on his ear. He almost batted at whatever it was before remembering. Turning his head to look, he saw that the parrot was awake. It took a second for him to realize that it had been nibbling on his ear with great gentleness.

"Oh, it's you," Robin said quietly.

Slowly, he reached into his pocket and produced a pair of jeweler's pliers He showed the item to the parrot, who continued to nibble his ear. He raised his hand towards the bird, who stopped and eyed the hand suspiciously.

Robin stopped, then whistled a few bars of Dixie. The bird responded, and seemed to relax. Every time it got nervous about his hand, Robin whistled more of Dixie. He'd gotten to the end by the time the pliers were in cutting distance of the leg band.

There was utter silence as the bird tensely observed the pliers as they cut the band on its leg. The band fell off and Robin moved the pliers away.

"See?. That's all I wanted," Robin breathed a sigh of relief.

The parrot, as if somehow understanding that Robin's obsession with its person had finally come to an end, began to chortle quietly. This soon grew into raucous laughter, which Robin echoed. The bird, thrilled by this new development, took to the air and cackled madly as it flew around the room in circles. After completing three circuits, it came back to rest on Robin's shoulder.

"Well, I guess you're not so bad after all," Robin said.

He thought about caging the bird again, but just couldn't face abusing the bird's new-found trust that way. So instead he opened the bathroom door and exited the room, leaving the cage standing open.

The parrot immediately flew off, screaming in panic about the new surroundings. Robin let it go, knowing there was nothing for it to be afraid of in the entire mansion. Though they didn't keep pets, there also weren't any house plants or exposed chemicals for the bird to hurt itself with.

He descended the stairs just in time to see the bird swoop low over Alfred's head, now cackling rather than screaming.

"Good heavens!," Alfred cried in surprise, ducking instinctively though the bird had already gone by.

Robin shrugged helplessly, then held up his prize.

"I got what I needed. I hope," Robin grinned.

Seeing him, the bird changed course, flying in a wide circle, then coming to land heavily on his shoulder, still chuckling.

Alfred shook his head disapprovingly, but knew from the look of both boy and bird that some sort of bond had been forged between them in the last few hours. If the bird's owner turned out to be the man Robin was after, it was extremely likely that the parrot would be staying for a long time to come.

Alfred wondered if Bruce would put up with such a thing. He could see in Robin's eyes that the boy would fight for the bird if he had to.

Robin at last looked at the precious leg band.

"Meekus Labs huh?," Robin addressed this to the parrot "well you sure don't look like somebody's been testing cosmetics on you,"

The bird seemed to recognize this was meant as a joke and chuckled politely, even though it didn't understand. Robin grinned and shook his head.

"Well, it'll have to wait for nightfall," He told the bird "as for you, I'm going to figure out what it is you're actually supposed to be eating,"

"Good evening," the bird said in its low guttural voice, which sounded absolutely nothing like its usual tone.

"Good afternoon, you mean," Robin said.

"Good evening," the bird repeated in a low voice.

"Fine, have it your way,"


	7. Chapter 6 - You Are Here

_Meekus Labs_

_09:30 PM_

Robin landed on the roof of the building, half afraid that his weight alone would be enough to bring the entire structure down. There was a skylight which he thought about breaking through, then decided not to. It was looking pretty likely that this Meekus character was who he was looking for, but just in case he was wrong, he thought it would be a good idea not to break anything.

He attached the end of his grappler to the air conditioning unit and slid off the side of the roof. Finding a window on the second floor unlocked, he opened it and swung himself inside. He hit the dusty floor with barely a sound, but held still in case someone had heard.

He also held his breath to try and avoid inhaling the great cloud of dust which had risen when he disturbed it. When the place stayed quiet and the dust settled, Robin looked around more thoroughly. The room was full of old junk, but it didn't look like anybody had even been in there in years.

The door was unlocked, but squeaked on hinges which had probably never been oiled. Robin cringed at the noise, but there was no sound from below to indicate that he'd been heard. That told him the place was probably empty, just like he'd thought.

Creeping into the hallway, he tried to keep from sneezing as he found it to be just as dust covered as the room he had just exited. Down a flight of creaky stairs, he found himself in the middle of what appeared to be the lab of a mad scientist.

There were a number of cages lining the walls and making aisles down the room, and their occupants cooed, chirped, squeaked and croaked at the intruder, or maybe the interruption of their sleeping. They were all birds. Robin went slowly down the rows of cages, noting tags on every one of them.

These were mourning doves, those were ground doves, emerald doves, fruit doves and so on. Robin had never seen so many kinds of doves. Actually, there were several which he would have identified as pigeons, had anyone asked him what they looked like. Were doves and pigeons the same thing?. He had no idea and had never thought about it until looking at the stacked cages of doves which looked just like pigeons to him.

Against the wall were some finches, some sparrows, chickadees, cardinals and an assortment of other small birds. Backing up to take in the tremendous collection of birds, Robin was surprised by something bumping against him. He turned sharply, or tried to but his cape was caught by something for a moment. Standing before him in the dark, staring with enormous doe eyes, was an ostrich. It had poked him with its beak and then tugged on his cape and was now trying to reach forward and peck at him.

Robin backed out of its range and took in the side of the room the ostrich was on. It was alone of its kind, though there were several exotic species of birds on this side.

Robin shook his head and went to inspect the lab portion of the room. There seemed to be a thousand vials, tubes, cups, pitchers and measuring containers which were full of liquids Robin didn't recognize. He didn't sniff them or pick any of them up, he wasn't that stupid.

_Well, _he thought, _the guy is creepy, and probably in violation of several laws, but nothing in here really screams "I kidnap people who wear masks". On the other hand, major bird obsession here._

Robin then noticed an archway leading to yet another room and headed for it. If he was right, this should be the front room.

He was greeted by a deafening uproar as parrots of all shapes, sizes and colors began to scream at the top of their lungs. They too were tagged, some were common such as African grays, others were a little more exotic, but all were definitely parrots.

Robin made a slow circuit of the room, uneasy because he was nearly deaf from the noise, finding shelves of mysterious equipment and more test tubes strung around the room, but nothing more enlightening. Then, as he passed the front door, he was startled by a whooshing sound behind him.

Lunging forward, away from the sound, Robin was caught mid-flight and slammed into the floor on his left side. Yelping with pain and shock, Robin twisted to try and free himself from whatever had him. When he was not immediately able to break free, he looked back.

A half-sphere of netting, held up and together by steel supports, had sprung up and tried to throw itself over him. Robin had almost gotten clear, save for his left ankle, which was now quite stuck between the trap and the floor.

"You have got to be kidding!," Robin exclaimed.

It might have been easier to get free if he had been caught in the trap. Cutting through the net would have been easier than trying to lift the bar, which was meant to come down and meet the floor and stay there until the mechanism was tripped. Robin eventually gave up trying to lift it and threw a birdarang across the room to the spring mechanism that was designed to pull it back the way it had come.

Finally getting free, Robin listened hard to see if someone was coming to try and capture him. At this point, he was almost willing to wait around just to give the guy a piece of his mind. He was tired of all these booby traps

But there was no sign of anyone arriving. The trap had been meant to hold him indefinitely, which was completely ridiculous. Perhaps if he'd been a bird, or someone who didn't even own a pocket knife, but since he was and had already proven that...

He shook his head. The trap pretty much proved what Robin had come to believe. The owner of the parrot was the same man who'd been trying to catch Robin like he was a goldfinch or a turtle dove.

Robin had had enough of this place with its dim red lighting and fumes and dust and flocks of birds. He wanted out, and he wanted out now. He quickly retraced his steps, but when he came to the window he hesitated. Was the guy so mad as to think a bit of netting would hold him?. After all this?.

Surely not. There had to be a new trap waiting outside the window. There just had to be, it was the only thing that made sense. If anything about this made sense. He decided to just use the front door.

Robin turned away from the window and went back downstairs. He threw open the door and ducked in case a net came flying at him. But there was no net. Peering out cautiously, Robin just saw drift upon white drift of snow piled around the building and even in the street, which hadn't been plowed since the blizzard of the night before.

Robin stepped out into the snow, half expecting a noose to tighten around his leg and yank him into the air. But nothing happened. Warily, he eased himself the rest of the way out the door, closing it behind him. After the warmth of the building, the intense cold came as a bit of a shock.

Overhead, the moon shone brightly, without a cloud in the sky to blot it out. Its beams touched down on the snow, which sparkled in response to its caress. The world was wide open and almost as bright as day. Robin felt exposed, but also relieved to see no signs of anyone who wanted to throw a net at him.

Shaking himself out of his relieved daze, Robin remembered that he'd left his grappler on the roof, intending at the time to go back out the way he'd gone in. He went to retrieve it and found that another mist net had been set up. It didn't come as any surprise to him.

He looked around, but the man who had set the trap had obvious realized Robin had figured out the trap and wasn't coming. The man was gone. Robin cut the net down so that actual birds wouldn't be caught in it as he had once been.

Now it was time to go home and do some research on this Meekus person.

* * *

_Batcave_

_10:00 PM_

"Wipe your feet!," the parrot's sharp remark startled Robin.

He thought he'd left it up in the mansion. Evidently Alfred had grown weary of the bird's noise and repeated attempts to utterly demolish the library and shunted it down into the cave where it could do less harm. It was perched on the computer monitor, but flew at once to Robin's shoulder, repeating the words in a fiercely scolding tone.

"Wipe your feet!,"

"Not now, bird brain," Robin said, pushing the bird off his shoulder and back onto the monitor "now you stay. I've got work to do. I'm going to hunt down your master and arrest him,"

"Eee, eee, eee!," the bird chirped "it's a mouse, eee, eee, flee, flee,"

"You watch too much television," Robin told the bird, then settled down to work.

He first looked for Meekus through the Gotham City Police Department, but nothing turned up. He expanded his search to include more and more departments, also with no luck. Evidently, Meekus wasn't a known criminal.

He looked at asylums next, but they proved no more helpful than the police computers.

"Figures," Robin hissed "now what?. Look up his birth record?," he shook his head, then a thought struck him "it's Meekus Labs, implying he has some kind of doctorate. Maybe the scientific community has heard of this crackpot,"

At first, Robin didn't have much luck there. In fact, he had to go back over ten years of records to finally find what he was looking for.

"Well there's your typical mad scientist back story," Robin said, more to himself than the bird "at first hailed as brilliant, later eccentric, then finally laughed out of the community because of his theories on genetic manipulation," at first the information didn't sink in.

After all, there were so many mad scientists into genetics that Robin hardly found it worth thinking about. But something clicked for him. Maybe it was the interest Luthor had shown in Nightwing, and now the bird obsessed maniac who'd probably captured him.

Or maybe it was just instinct.

He changed to a new window and brought up the information on Meekus Labs. He had already given it a passing glance, enough to get everything on Meekus it had to offer. Now he looked more closely, his eyes flicking rapidly over everything he read, drinking it in hungrily, not sure if he was hoping that his hunch was right or wrong.

And then, plain as day, there it was. The connection.

"Meekus Labs was originally a pawn shop, which was bought by Luthorcorp for a song. Luthorcorp then gave it over to Meekus, virtually free of charge. Now why do you suppose they would do a thing like that?," Robin wondered aloud "Luthor never does anything without an ulterior motive,"

"The birds, it's about the birds!," The parrot supplied helpfully.

"Right, right, but what about them?. I mean, yeah the guy is obsessed with them. But that doesn't get us any closer to solving the mystery," Robin told the parrot "it's beginning to look like you were nothing more than a red herring in all of this,"

"Ducky!," the parrot exclaimed "wipe your sleep!,"

Robin tried to untangle his rush of thoughts into a coherent theory.

"Tell me if this sounds nuts," he said "Luthor hires Meekus to conduct research. He buys Meekus a lab. Meekus makes a serum that turns people into shape-shifters. Extremely powerful, virtually indestructible shape-shifters. Maybe it has its base in birds somehow, maybe not, but that's not the point. Luthor figures out that immunity to certain toxins makes for better results in the formula. He develops a preoccupation with Nightwing and Robin. Meekus hears about it, but all he hears is birds, because, well... the guy is whacked. And...," Robin bit his lip and sighed "and then I don't know. How do we get from turning people into monsters to kidnapping them?. It doesn't make sense. Unless Meekus is working on a new formula which he plans to use... but then why catch Hawkman and Hawkwoman?. They're not exactly prime test subjects. Or Black Canary, for that matter,"

"It's all about the birds," The parrot repeated, more subdued now that Robin's own excitement had faded.

"Yeah, yeah," Robin muttered absently.

Even if he could somehow make the leap to understanding, Robin wasn't sure that it would help any. After all, knowing what Meekus and Luthor were planning wouldn't necessarily tell him where the captives were being held.

"You're not a bird," the parrot chortled, eying Robin critically "you don't matter,"

"What?," Robin looked up, thinking for a moment that the parrot had actually spoken as a human might, and actually understood what it was saying.

But then the bird proceeded to cackle and march up and down the monitor, raising and lowering its crest rapidly as if for the exercise.

"What movie did you get that line from?," Robin asked "or are you doing mix and match again?,"

He shook his head, but the words nagged at him, as if they had some meaning that he couldn't precisely define. The bird didn't say it again, resuming its usual inane babbling, punctuated by shrieks and whistles and excessive amounts of laughter.

"I must be losing my mind," he sighed.

He'd taken some samples from the vials in the lab and decided to run some tests on them, hoping to find something useful. Chemistry wasn't his strong suit, but he wasn't about to go asking for help.

He had to do this himself, if only to prove to himself that he could.

* * *

_December 5__th__, 06:37 AM_

Robin was woken by the sharp whistling of the parrot. The sound startled him out of his chair and he fell onto the floor with an audible 'thump'. This so alarmed the parrot that it took to the air and began to fly about the cave, shrieking in panic.

"Hey, you woke me up and I'm not screaming," Robin admonished "so cut that out,"

Recognizing the sound of his voice, the bird came fluttering over and made a tremendous show of landing on the computer monitor. It looked down at him with the same eyes that a child might have when they look at a monkey in a zoo.

"Never Boston in fall," it commented dryly.

Robin shook himself more thoroughly awake and sat back down on the chair.

"Okay, so I've got all these pieces, but they don't seem to fit together," Robin sighed "which means I'm right back at square one,"

"You. Are. Here," the parrot supplied.

Robin almost made a sarcastic retort, then his eyes widened. He gaped at the parrot, utterly stunned. Could it really be so simple?. So obvious?. Would it even work?.

"I'm not sure," Robin said slowly, his mind in overdrive at the thought that had struck him, trying to figure all the ins and outs "but I think you're a genius,"

"Ack, bird brain!," the parrot retorted, having learned the term from Robin and apparently loving the sound of it "bird brain,"

"Bird brain is right," Robin said "you, my friend, are going to help me find my brother and the others. Come on,"


	8. Chapter 7 - It's a Trap

_08:15 AM_

"Are you quite sure you know what you're doing?," Alfred asked.

Alfred had driven Robin to the place where he'd first caught the parrot. The bird was sitting on his lap, looking around at the car balefully. It was evident that the bird was accustomed to car rides, but had absolutely no affection for them.

"Not really. It's just a hunch. But if I'm right, when I let this bird go, it'll fly right back home to its master," Robin replied.

"I hate to point this out, but if the parrot was lost when you found it, wouldn't it still be lost?,"

"That's the thing," Robin said."I don't think it was lost. Now that I think about it, the parrot didn't seem frightened at all until I went after it. Even though the van drove off without it, the bird didn't seem concerned. My theory is that it knew where it was and how to get to wherever home is,"

"Meekus Labs?," Alfred asked.

"I don't think so. Birds can fly a long way according to the internet, but Meekus Labs is all the way on the other side of the city, which is a bit far to ask a bird to casually fly. If it had to go that far, it probably would have been more upset about being left behind,"

"What makes you think the bird will be willing to leave you?," Alfred wanted to know.

"I may have gained its trust," Robin said slowly "but it hasn't known me long enough to be really attached to me. I'm betting that it wants to go home, if only because home is what is most familiar to it,"

Robin had not forgotten the dangers of the city. Those were still every bit as present as they had been before, including the cold. But he couldn't think of anything else to do. He had to find Meekus, and the bird was his only lead. He was only too aware that time might well be of the essence. There was not other choice. Before Robin opened the door to release the parrot once and for all, he encouraged it up onto his hand and then held it very near his face.

Little round bird eyes met uncertain young boy eyes, and they gazed at one another for a long moment.

"I know you can't understand me," Robin said finally "but I want you to know that I'm sorry. If there was any other way, I wouldn't let you go. But I have to find my brother, he may be hurt or dying for all I know. But I do have a way to find you. I put a tracker chip on your leg band before I put it back on. I won't lose you. I can't promise nothing bad will happen, but I can promise that I'll do everything I can to protect you,"

_Look at me, _he thought, _I'm getting choked up over a bird. A squawking nightmare bent on destroying all that it can get its beak on. And it's not even mine._

He opened the door quickly, before he could change his mind.

"Ook!," the parrot's head swung around towards the open door.

It didn't look back, didn't hesitate. It took to the air immediately, flying out into the cold winter day. Robin watched it go until it disappeared. Then he allowed Alfred to take him home.

He immediately got out the R-cycle and began to follow the bird's trail.

"Alright, Meekus," he said to himself "this time I'm coming for you and we'll see how you like being hunted,"

* * *

_10:00 AM_

Robin had followed the bird out to the edge of the city, past neighborhoods and on towards the large ranch-type properties. The signal led to a thirty acre property whose only building bore a striking resemblance to a large grain silo.

"Okay, not what I was expecting," Robin said to himself.

He didn't like the openness of the land. There were no trees and it was broad daylight, he was in full view of anybody standing at a window or holding a pair of binoculars. He was tempted to leave it at that, to just go home until nightfall.

But he didn't. If he was wrong, then the bird had probably just stopped to rest here and was shivering from cold on the ground somewhere, assuming he hadn't by his actions already facilitated its demise. He felt a pang of guilt, and like just about the worst person in the world for having done what he did. But he still felt that he hadn't really had any other choice.

If he was right, he'd probably already been spotted or wasn't going to be. Even if this was where the captives (assuming they were alive) were being held, they would be moved by nightfall for sure.

Self preservation instinct told Robin to run, not to expose himself to unnecessary danger. But he had already done that to the bird, necessarily during the day because it probably wouldn't fly at night. He had exposed the bird to danger, he couldn't just back out now that the shoe was on the other foot.

There was a fence surrounding the property, and a gate which would have blocked the driveway had it been closed. As it was hanging open, it did nothing of the kind. The long driveway had been plowed since the last snow, and Robin had little trouble driving down it, towards the silo.

The closer he got, the more uneasy he felt. About a million things could go wrong, and most of those scenarios ended with him being either dead or being used in an experiment which, at least to his mind, was much worse.

About a hundred yards away from the silo, Robin left the R-cycle and continued on foot. Nervously, he looked up at the structure, and slowly made a circle around it, struggling through the deep drifts of snow surrounding it. It looked harmless enough, but its character was somehow off-kilter and slightly forbidding. Well, forbidden or not, Robin _was_ going in.

There were no windows or doors, save for the one at the front. It looked like there were windows on the roof, which seemed a bit peculiar somehow. But there was nowhere to attach the grappler and pull himself up. To get in that way, he'd have to be dropped down from the air.

"Looks like a trap," Robin spoke aloud, his breath frosting in the cold air "and I'm going to walk right into it,"

Taking a deep breath, he headed for the door. He tried it, found it wasn't locked. But it was heavy. It groaned in protest as Robin shoved it aside. Inside was a layer of darkness so thick he could have cut it with a knife. Without hesitating, Robin flung himself through the doorway and rolled to the side, crouching low as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, listening with all his might.

When he could finally see, he realized the inside of the structure belied its outward appearance. He was standing on a slab of concrete big enough to park five or six SUVs on. Around the walls of the building were narrow catwalks suspended on thin wires and welded to the wall. There was a flight of stairs near where he was standing that led to a deeper part of the structure, what the catwalks were surrounding. Here there were large containers which appeared to be made of glass, supported at the corners by steel frames. The catwalks left the walls to attach to the top of these containers, held up by nothing more than the wire. The containers themselves were mounted on blocks that held them about eight feet off the floor.

All of this Robin saw and processed in a few seconds' time. He then noticed the contents of the aforementioned containers and felt the urge to cry out, which he resisted. There, alive and apparently well, were the missing.

He rose and started down the stairs, unnoticed by the occupants of the containers. As he walked off the last step, he was hardly surprised to find himself suddenly yanked into the air by the ankle. He was flipped upside down. He let out a startled cry, which escaped in spite of the fact that he wasn't really very surprised at all. Almost at once, he pulled out a birdarang and tried to cut the tie that held him by the right ankle. But it wouldn't cut.

"I've learned," a strange voice spoke.

Robin, spinning in the draft created by an air vent, looked around for the voice. There he was, up on the catwalk, smiling down. On his shoulder was the parrot.

"Hello, Meekus," Robin said.

The flurry of movement had gained the attention of those in the containers, but Robin couldn't hear any of the things they seemed to be saying, and so assumed the containers were soundproof. Their looks said plain enough that they were shocked he was here, and very unhappy that he'd been caught. He was swung back towards Meekus by the draft.

"It's always the little birds that are hardest to catch," Meekus was saying, absently scratching the white parrot under the chin "they're always so agile and clever,"

"I'm not a bird," Robin spat "and I'm tired of being treated like one,"

"You're not?," Meekus seemed to be completely stunned by this.

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and paced up the catwalk so he could take a closer look at Robin who, for his part, hung upside down with his arms crossed in front of him irritably.

"Not a bird," the parrot croaked.

"You think not, Edith?. Well, I suppose we can always see,"

Without warning, the line holding Robin up suddenly went slack. He had barely enough time to wrap his arms around his head before crashing to the concrete floor heavily. Before he could recover, the line pulled taut again, snatching him back into the air so abruptly that he bounced and swung around.

"Ouch," Robin complained "what was that for?,"

Meekus was ignoring him now, absorbed in his own world. He continued along the catwalk, heading for the staircase so he could even more closely inspect the creature he'd caught in his snare.

"Doesn't move like a bird, does it?," He inquired of the parrot "Hmm... not at all,"

"Not a bird!. Doesn't matter!," the parrot squealed with obvious delight "shut up, bird brain!,"

Robin flinched at hearing his own harsh words repeated by their recipient as if they had been a great compliment.

Meekus made it to the stairs and wobbled down them with all the grace of a toddler. Then he trundled up to Robin and stared hard at the boy's face through enormous glasses. He had with him a walking stick, which he now poked Robin in the side with. Robin swayed unevenly, and the line started to turn him around.

"No, you're not a bird at all. You're an imposter!," Meekus cried suddenly.

"Not a bird!. Not a bird!," the parrot screamed.

Robin waited until he'd swung back to face Meekus.

"So put me down and let me go," Robin advised "I'm obviously not what you want,"

"No," Meekus replied "but I can make you become what you should always have been,"

Robin swallowed hard. That didn't sound good.

"You see, soon the whole city of Gotham will be full of birds," Meekus explained, running over to what Robin could only assume was a computer terminal "I finally figured out how to make my formula airborne. I've perfected it. Soon the world will be full of new species of birds. But I had to ensure that the old ones were protected first," he gestured towards the containers.

"All about the birds!," the parrot shouted triumphantly, throwing her head back and cackling.

"And you almost got away," Meekus snarled irritably "a mammal in my bird house," he clucked his tongue and shook his head.

"Your formula?. The one that's been turning people into monsters?,"

"That was before it was perfected," Meekus replied "but now it does what I always meant it to do. Birds!. Everyone will become birds,"

"All under Luthor's control," Robin guessed.

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no," the little mad scientist shook his head vehemently "Luthor will be a bird soon enough. No control,"

"And did you also fix the part where it turns people into vicious killers?," Robin asked uneasily.

"Nature at its most pure," Meekus insisted "is no flaw,"

"That's not nature!," Robin exploded "killing at random, tearing apart all that lives. That's not nature!,"

"Absolute freedom to do what one will," Meekus rephrased.

"Removing all the things that have been put in place to preserve the species?. To reproduce, to not over hunt and kill off all prey?. Without these things, there can be no species," Robin knew it wouldn't be possible to reason with the man, but he was buying himself time.

He'd begun to work on the line with his free foot, trying to shift it loose.

"Not to mention all the individuals you would destroy in doing it. I've been one of your creations, Meekus. I had my memory, but I wasn't myself. You killed me, Dr. Meekus. Dead. It was sheer luck I was brought back. Think of the people you'll be killing,"

"Bah, what are a few individuals for the sake of the whole?," Meekus asked "you know predators must hunt and kill in order to survive,"

"Yes, that's true," Robin agreed "but you're not acting as a predator, Dr. Meekus. You think you're God. That creation isn't good enough as it is and needs to be fixed. Well look at history!. What happens when people try to fix what is?,"

"Those people were fools,"

"ALL people are fools!," Robin practically shouted "every one of us!. Not one of us has the knowledge to fix the world. Not to fix each other," he became quiet "not even to fix ourselves,"

"So what do you suggest?. Just do nothing?. Let the world burn itself to ash?," Meekus asked.

"No," Robin told him "but to accept what is, and what must be, is not the same as doing nothing. You know what I do. Every night, I go out and catch criminals. Not because I think I can change them, or any of humanity. But maybe the streets are a little safer. Maybe some little old lady gets to go home at night, wake up in the morning and watch her cooking shows and then go visit her granddaughter because of what I did. Saving the world is not the same as changing it. Some part of you must know that,"


	9. Chapter 8 - Bird Brain

Robin knew the words had come out all wrong, they didn't properly explain what he felt. They were meaningless words, bouncing off a mind which wasn't willing to listen anyway. In his heart, he knew what was right and what was not. He knew what he believed. But he did not have the right words to express those things. And yet, that didn't change what he thought or felt.

"Can't you see?. The world isn't a perfect place. But I do know this, what you're doing will only make things worse. You aren't fixing anything. You have to stop,"

The noose around his ankle finally came off. He anticipated the drop this time and rolled with it, coming to a stop with a container between himself and Meekus.

Looking up, he saw Nightwing peering down at him worriedly. He knew Nightwing couldn't hear what was said and, since Robin had been faced away, couldn't have read his lips. But it didn't matter. What did matter was that Nightwing knew there was nowhere for Robin to go. There was only one door, and Meekus was blocking it.

Meekus had screamed angrily when Robin broke free, frightening the parrot up into the rafters, where she now crouched and screamed at the top of her lungs. Robin moved to go and take Meekus on, but a quick series of hand movements from Nightwing halted him.

Meekus was carrying a dose of his formula. All Robin had to do was breathe it in and the whole thing would be over. He hesitated. In his uncertainty, he lost track of Meekus, who was upon him before he even knew it.

"You will be a bird!," Meekus shouted.

Robin rolled onto his back, then kicked upward, trying to knock the delivery system from Meekus' hands. He failed, and Meekus was only thrown back. Robin was on his feet in an instant, but Meekus too had recovered, aiming the formula like a weapon.

Robin held up his hands, knowing there was no surrender. There was too much space between them for him to reach Meekus before he pulled whatever trigger mechanism the thing had.

A loud flapping sound distracted both of them. Looking up, they were just in time to witness the completion of the white cockatoo's dive. Her claws closed around the canister for the formula, snatching it into the air. She released and it spun off into a corner. Robin wasted no time punching Meekus' lights out.

"Bird brain," he hissed at the unconscious man.

Robin wasn't sure why the parrot had saved him. Maybe she'd sensed his fear. Or maybe the silver glint of the container for the formula reminded her of her own leg band which Robin had once removed and she thought that it was a game. Maybe she had just been scared and flown blindly.

He didn't pause to look a gift parrot in the mouth.

As he crossed to the computer against the wall, the parrot flew down from wherever she'd gone and alighted on his shoulder. She began to nibble on his ear while he looked for a release key for the containers. He shrugged her off his ear because it tickled and distracted him. Discouraged, the parrot began to chortle to herself and crack her beak loudly.

Robin ignored her. Finally finding a key that looked promising, he hit it. With a hiss and a clank, the lid of the container holding Nightwing, Black Canary and Penguin lifted and swung aside. Just as Robin turned to do the same for the other containers, the parrot flew from his shoulder with a terrified squawking. Instinctively, Robin ducked, just in time to avoid a crowbar which swung down and hit the computer instead. Sparks flew as Robin rolled clear.

"Stupid," he berated himself "should have tied you while I had the chance,"

Meekus, still holding the crowbar, swung at where Robin was, but missed as the boy dodged away.

"You can't stop me!," Meekus shouted "I've already started the countdown!. A device on the roof of Meekus labs will release the formula into the air in a matter of minutes. Even if you beat me, you can't get there in time,"

Meekus' triumphant speech was broken by a look of concern as he took in the dark smile of the boy.

"I don't have to. See, unlike you, I have friends. And, unlike your precious birds, they don't desert when things get difficult, or scary or inconvenient," Robin told him "That's the difference between your world and mine. In my world, people help each other,"

* * *

_Meekus Labs_

The call from Robin had been unexpected, to say the least. Kaldur, Superboy, Miss Martian and Kid Flash had been on duty at the tower, with Kaldur keeping an eye on the systems. Robin had detailed his plan to the team. He had then asked them to back him up.

They had followed him in the cloaked bio-ship, and seen and heard everything that was said in the silo. Kid Flash had wanted to go down and help Robin, but Kaldur stopped him.

"He can do this himself," Kaldur told him "he is not in need of our assistance,"

And so, the moment Meekus revealed where his device was, he doomed himself to failure. Those in the bio-ship heard. Less than a second later, Kid Flash exited the bio-ship and hit the ground running. It didn't take long for him to reach the labs, or make it to the roof. In fact, it took him longer to disarm the device than it had taken for him to get there in the first place.

Once he'd finished, he spoke into his radio.

"All's clear on this end,"

"_Thanks,"_ Robin's voice said on the radio _"and everything's just about wrapped up here. Except I'm not sure how to get these containers open without the control key. They're locked down pretty good,"_

"Need a hand?,"

"_You know it,"_

"Alright, gimme a sec to get there,"

* * *

_Meekus Silo_

_11:00 AM_

It took awhile to get the containers open, and to separate the heroes from the villains. More people than just Nightwing, Black Canary, Hawkman, Hawkwoman and Penguin had been kidnapped, and it took a bit to get everything straightened out. Once they finally did, it was Nightwing who said

"Alright, everybody grab a villain and take him back where he belongs,"

He and the team stood and watched the heroes filter out with villains in tow until only they, Penguin and Meekus were left. There was no sign of the parrot, who had flown away in a panic during the commotion. Robin was a little upset to see her gone, and hoped nothing bad had happened to her.

A thought struck him and he knelt down beside the tied up Meekus to put himself at close to eye level with the villain. That's all he was, just another villain. Crazier than many, perhaps, but a mere villain nonetheless.

"Did you ever care about that bird?," He asked.

"I care about all birds,"

"I mean Edith. Specifically. Even a little bit?,"

"She is a beautiful example of the sulphur crested cockatoo,"

"That's not what I asked," Robin said "do you love her?,"

"I already told you-,"

"I mean as an individual!," Robin snapped.

His outburst drew some stares from the team, then they pretended not to have heard. They could see in his eyes that this conversation was personal.

"I don't understand,"

Robin sighed, shaking his head and standing up.

"I didn't think you would," he said heavily "and I'm sorry for that,"

"Well," Nightwing said "it looks like everything here is just about taken care of. What's say we go home?,"

"I came on the R-cycle," Robin said "think you can cart Meekus off to the authorities?. I'll ride back home on my own,"

"Sure," Nightwing replied, cheerfully thinking about how he would never have to eat another sunflower seed if he didn't want to for as long as he lived.

And he _really_ didn't want to.

"Hey," Kid Flash dashed up beside Robin "want some company?. I could use the exercise,"

"If you can keep up," Robin retorted, grinning.

As they headed for the door, a loud squawking overhead drew their attention. Swooping down from the rafters, the bright sunlight streaming through the skylights and setting her wings aglow, was the parrot. They were still walking, but stopped when the bird shouted

"Grandpa!. Sam!. Wait!,"

She came in to land on Robin's shoulder. Robin turned to Kid Flash and grinned.

"You be Grandpa," Kid Flash told him "And I'll be Sam,"

"No, you're Grandpa,"

"Nu-uh!. I'm younger than you by like... sixty years. Give or take,"

"And your point is?,"

As their voices drifted away, Nightwing stood shaking his head and laughing. He looked up to find that Kaldur was staring at him. They both looked after the boys, then back at each other.

"Those two are going to be best friends," Nightwing said, almost wistfully, thinking of a distant time when he had been a boy like that, able to shrug things off in an instant and amused by the slightest thing.

"And great allies," Kaldur added thoughtfully.

"Already are," Nightwing corrected and Kaldur acknowledged this with a nod.

"How do you think Batman will take to Robin's new pet?," he asked.

Nightwing winced, then shook his head, grinning.

"Probably not well, but I pity the poor guy who tries to separate them,"

* * *

**A/N: Due to personal issues, the author needs to take a few days' leave and will not be posting for a time. At the very latest, the epilogue for this story and the prologue for the next should be up before next week.**


	10. Epilogue

**_A/N: _Recollection_ was originally written to be the final part of the _Re_ series. However, the author felt that the tone which was set for the series and the tone of this particular story didn't flow well together and so wrote one final part of the story. The prologue for _Reflection_ will be posted right after this epilogue._**

* * *

_Batcave_

_07:00 PM_

Robin had spent the better part of the afternoon playing video games with Kid Flash, then later exchanging stories with Nightwing. He felt like he'd gotten off easy. After all, had things been different, Robin might have been the one eating millet.

Now he was writing a report about the events for the record.

There was a sort of wild satisfaction that came from having defeated Meekus. Sure, there were still monsters on the loose, and it would take awhile to get things under control. But Meekus had told police that Luthor's scientists didn't understand the formula.

Assuming that was true, they probably couldn't refine or recreate it. Meaning it was only a matter of time before the whole mess was finally cleared up.

It seemed like the monsters had been an issue forever, but it looked like things were finally winding down. For Robin, it felt like finishing a good book to have caught Meekus. Now he could look back on all that had happened through the eyes of memory. There was a lot to reflect on, he realized, because so much had happened that he couldn't even really remember it all.

The life he lived was a gift, a curse, but mostly a responsibility. And it was one he had learned to bear gladly. He still missed who he had once been sometimes, would always miss it. He would always have his doubts, his uncertainties, his fears. But he also had something else, something which no one and nothing could ever take away: a reason.

He was startled out of his contemplation by the parrot's sharp rebuking tone as she shouted

"Wipe your feet!,"

Robin looked up and around, and caught sight of Batman, who had just returned from a League mission. The stunned look on his face, which he quickly concealed, was priceless.

"What is that?," he demanded, eying the bird as he stepped further into the cave.

The parrot, perching on the computer monitor, eyed him with disdain. She began to chuckle, and before long it was full blown out of control cackling.

"That," Robin said matter-of-factly "is a parrot,"

That much," Batman growled "is apparent. What's it doing here?,"

"At the moment?. Cackling,"

Batman glared, evidently in no mood for games. Robin returned his gaze defiantly and they both knew the actual question wasn't what the bird was doing, why it was here or where it had come from. The actual question was: is she staying?.

At last, apparently seeing the depth of Robin's feelings for the creature in his eyes, Batman sighed.

"What's its name?,"

Robin started, then looked at the parrot, blinking. Then he looked back at Batman and grinned.

"Her name is... Dixie," he said, then added "can I keep her?,"

The parrot, somehow knowing that she'd just heard her new name, evidently felt the overwhelming urge to say something about it. Her choice of words was, perhaps, not best suited to the moment.

"Bird brain!," She exclaimed brightly, and the proceeded to laugh as if she'd told a very funny joke.

Robin looked at the bird out of the corner of his eye and laughed nervously. Batman, for his part, said never a word, and just scowled.

* * *

_**A/N: For those of you who are wondering, virtually everything that Dixie says is a reference to parrots in media.**_

_**Her favorite song "Dixie" is a reference to the parrot in the Red Skelton movie **_**Whistling in Dixie**_**.**_

**_The line "Grandpa. Sam. Wait" is a quote from _The Real Macaw_._**

_**"Wipe your feet" among other lines, is a reference to the parrot from **_**The Adventure Series**_** by Enid Blyton.**_

_**There are other references, these are merely a select few.**_


End file.
